Robert Rhodes gets 40 years for holding kidnap victim in car trunk while at probation office

St. Louis, MO (KSDK) - A Normandy man was sentenced to 40 years in prison after he was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a 21-year-old woman, whom he locked into the trunk of his car while visiting his parole officer in downtown last year.

Robert Rhodes, 37, learned his punishment Thursday in St. Louis Circuit Court. It took jurors less than an hour in August to find Rhodes guilty of the crimes.

Judge Timothy Wilson order Rhodes to serve a 30 year term on the assault conviction, plus an additional 10 years on armed criminal action. A 15 year term on the kidnapping charge is to be serve concurrent to the 40 year sentence.

During his trial last summer, evidence showed Rhodes abducted the victim in the county on May 31, 2011, then drove to his probation office on Clark Street downtown, where he was already an hour late.

When Rhodes arrived at the parole office, a woman who worked across the street in the 2700 block of Clark saw Rhodes wiping down the trunk of his Cadillac with a shirt.

The witness continued to watch the vehicle while she smoked a cigarette and thought the back end of the car was shaking. The witness called police, who arrived and rescued the dehydrated woman from the trunk.

After reviving the victim, she was taken to a hospital for emergency treatment.

Authorities said Rhodes was on probation for less than eight months when he abducted the woman.